Does anybody know if Ulla Cave is sumped right now? I was considering getting a permit to get the key and check it out this weekend. I live in Florida so I have no idea how much rain you guys have been getting up there. Any info. would be greatly appreciated!

We have not been getting a lot of rain lately but did get some over the weekend. It was most likely not enough to sump the cave since it's been so dry around here. Most of the water was probably soaked up. I think your best bet would be to go ahead and contact the Rangers about your permit, they would be able to tell you for sure the conditions of the cave.

We have a grotto trip scheduled to go there this Sunday. If you don't get there this weekend, I can let you know how it is after we go. As Kelly said, it has been fairly dry, so we are hopeful that the sump will be passable.

We went in Ulla yesterday with a group from our Grotto. The Sometime Sump had ~1 foot of water, and ~1.5 foot of airspace. A bit of a chill, so I was glad I had brought polypro. You could tell it had been high water in recent days, since there was a fresh coat of slick mud on everything for the first few hundred feet. We had a good trip, and made it back as far as the Flower Garden. Maybe next time I will get to see the waterfall.

I haven't been since August but with the rains we recently had I would say its probably sumped. In August when we hadn't had any rain in forever we talked about how it was gonna be dry. When we got to it we had to go through water, everybody was soaked. Best part was listening to about every second or third person hit the cold water and holler, "I thought it was dry".

Sorry to raise this thread from the dead, but I have a specific question about this cave. What is the maximum depth of Ulla Cave? And, how close to the surface is the Lost Tape Passage area and beyond? Just curious if anyone knows this. I have been approved for a permit in August and I'm starting to make plans. This will be my first time in Ulla, though I will be with at least one other caver who has been there I can't seem to find this information. Thanks.

Greg Jones wrote:DawgsgoCaving, so Bob Gulden's website states that the maximum depth of Ulla Cave is 200 feet.

I think what Dawgs is looking for is how deep it actually is below the ground surface. The "depth" that surveyors report does not reflect that, but is merely the difference between the highest and the lowest surveyed points in the cave. I did an overlay of the cave map to the topo, and according to my calculations the Lost Tape Passage is approx. 1000' below the overlying surface. The surface above this area is mostly sandstone, so hope for an upper entrance in that area is pretty slim. The chances are somewhat better closer to the entrance, although there have been a lot of folks looking in vain for such an entrance. In 2012 we had high hopes that we were about to make such a connection, which according to my reckoning would have connected in the area of the Big Flowstone. Alas, it turned out to only be a 50' blind pit, which we named "Little Hope Well."The hunt will continue, however. An upper entrance would be a great safety valve in case a party got trapped by an unexpected rain event. As it is, such an occurrence could be fatal for those involved, since the cave is sumped shut for months at a time.